Listening to the earth for prayer: day 13 in Advent...

I've been listening to Psalm 126 in my head and heart for a few days now... especially the second part:

May those who sow in tears
reap with shouts of joy.
Those who go out weeping,
bearing the seed for sowing,
shall come home with shouts of joy,
carrying their sheaves.

More than any other time in my life, the land is helping shape my spirituality: the physicality of God's presence is stunning to me.  Perhaps it is because I'm growing older, but for the first time I am listening to the wisdom of the God's presence in the seasons.  Clearly, they are wise teachers when it comes to a time for dancing, weeping, peace-making and and all the rest.

For example, earlier in the week, the field behind our house looked like this...

This looks like waiting to me: things are fallow and grey ~ quiet ~ subdued.  As the weather changed, however, a clear transition was in the air.  The first serious frost coated everything in a mystical beauty that shimmered in the early morning sun.  It felt like a call to attention: awake o sleeper arise!

And then came the snow.  (Ok we had a FREAKISHLY early blizzard at the end of October, but that doesn't count.) This was a quiet snow fall:  it muffles the usual buzz of the traffic and gives me permission to watch and wonder for a bit.  It makes the Christmas lights sparkle, too in a way the feels pregnant with meaning.  My friend, Peter, in Thunder Bay speaks of "going bear" in the winter ~ it is a time for deep inner reflection ~ and I am learning this to be true.  Spring and summer are seasons for activism, yes?  Now, like Mary with the Christ-child in her womb, is the season for pondering all these things and holding them close in our hearts.

I am still very new to listening to the spirituality of the seasons in this land.  Today I simply trust the wisdom of it all and know (by faith) that there are seeds of joy being sown that are beyond my vision.  Blessed Sabbath rest, my friends.